Problem of Other Minds, God and Us.
I can sum it up in two words. Cat Herding.
Wikipedia describes "The Problem of Other Minds" as follows.
Given that I can only observe the behaviour of others, how can I know that others have minds?
Now how does this relate to Us and God? How do we know that God has a mind? How do I know that you have a mind? How do I know that I am not a brain in a vat? As interesting and as fun as all these questions are to think about I want to look at it more pragmatically.
That's cool.
I know what I mean, but do you?
What does that mean? It depends on context doesn't it? This is the problem of other minds. I don't know if you've understood what I mean. I would know if you've understood what I mean if I could put the thoughts in your head exactly the way they should be but I can't. I have to tell you.
So now I'm planning a project and I have to describe to these people what the specifications are going to be. I am going to try to use the principle of clarity and minimize as much uncertainty as I can. I use email but someone always misunderstands what I mean. They take their misunderstanding of what I mean and shoot off an email to some other people pretty soon, the project is off track. I draw a picture, scan it, and send it in the next email. This works better but there is always some information missing or some information that will get interpreted in a way that I didn't expect. It would be so much better if they could read my mind. It would be so much better if I could just download the electrochemical state in my head and pass it on to them to upload. But the problem is that they would still be missing information unless I passed onto them the whole configuration of my brain, because they don't have my memories or resultant heuristic algorithms that I have acquired over time.
The truth is, it is a 'miracle' if this project turns out as planned and on schedule and within budget because people can't read minds and, regardless of their best efforts, can only understand what they have a foundational knowledge about.
Since this is the case and is a source of my frustration, either I am the only one this happens to, or it is a symptom of human cognition.
Since this is the case, it is silly for me to expect that generating text is going to keep this project on track. It is silly for me to use terms and examples that my associates don't have a foundational knowledge of. It would be better if I could just impart this knowledge into them with no chance of mistake or misinterpretation.
The only way I could do that is to be God. But we know that Gods don't work that way. But I bet they would if they were real.
Wikipedia describes "The Problem of Other Minds" as follows.
Given that I can only observe the behaviour of others, how can I know that others have minds?
Now how does this relate to Us and God? How do we know that God has a mind? How do I know that you have a mind? How do I know that I am not a brain in a vat? As interesting and as fun as all these questions are to think about I want to look at it more pragmatically.
That's cool.
I know what I mean, but do you?
What does that mean? It depends on context doesn't it? This is the problem of other minds. I don't know if you've understood what I mean. I would know if you've understood what I mean if I could put the thoughts in your head exactly the way they should be but I can't. I have to tell you.
So now I'm planning a project and I have to describe to these people what the specifications are going to be. I am going to try to use the principle of clarity and minimize as much uncertainty as I can. I use email but someone always misunderstands what I mean. They take their misunderstanding of what I mean and shoot off an email to some other people pretty soon, the project is off track. I draw a picture, scan it, and send it in the next email. This works better but there is always some information missing or some information that will get interpreted in a way that I didn't expect. It would be so much better if they could read my mind. It would be so much better if I could just download the electrochemical state in my head and pass it on to them to upload. But the problem is that they would still be missing information unless I passed onto them the whole configuration of my brain, because they don't have my memories or resultant heuristic algorithms that I have acquired over time.
The truth is, it is a 'miracle' if this project turns out as planned and on schedule and within budget because people can't read minds and, regardless of their best efforts, can only understand what they have a foundational knowledge about.
Since this is the case and is a source of my frustration, either I am the only one this happens to, or it is a symptom of human cognition.
Since this is the case, it is silly for me to expect that generating text is going to keep this project on track. It is silly for me to use terms and examples that my associates don't have a foundational knowledge of. It would be better if I could just impart this knowledge into them with no chance of mistake or misinterpretation.
The only way I could do that is to be God. But we know that Gods don't work that way. But I bet they would if they were real.
2 comments:
Awesome! I love the video but the text is even better.
Hi Lee,
I'll second evan's comment -- awesome (and damned funny, too).
The text points up the basic "problem" of being human. We can't communicate clearly. This is what politics are about. It is why businesses thrive for periods of time and then mysteriously wither. It is why guys like Mark Penn can make millions of dollars from the Clinton campaign to try and create a message. It is undoubtedly why so many folks rely on a book like the bible or the koran to guide their lives.
Bottom line: we all want clarity of thought and action (based on the assumption that this would make life more enjoyable and less confusing), and most are willing to ignore cognitive dissonance and embrace a set of 'beliefs' in order to get that clarity. Of course, it isn't really very clear, is it? I'll take chaos any day of the week.
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